Plant health knowledge helps residents of wildlife conservancy turn from poaching to farming
Simalaha Community Conservancy aims to protect endangered wildlife. However, several years ago, it faced a big challenge. People living within the parks’ boundaries were poaching animals for food and income. The Conservancy is managed by Peace Parks Foundation. They addressed the problem by helping residents to shift from poaching to smallholder farming. But in 2020,…
Empowering Nepalese students with CABI digital platforms: Exploring the PlantwisePlus Toolkit
Gaurav Thakur, a student of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, writes here about CABI’s presentation of its digital platforms for plant protection and other agricultural applications.
Why we need a skills framework for agriculture
Agriculture has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Technological progress and scientific research are constantly reshaping the roles within agriculture and the skills required to do them. As such, it is essential to have a well-defined skills framework to guide the workforce. The Skills for Agriculture (SfA) is a structured approach to identifying, developing, and…
How young people are bringing nature-based solutions to farmers
Young spray service providers are changing environmental protection and food safety by offering natural alternatives to chemical pesticides. They’re changing farmers’ minds about the types of pest control they use. In this blog, we look at PlantwisePlus training in pesticide application and how the programme supports young people – the future of safer and more…
Training Kenya’s young farmers and women to help ensure greater food security
The theme for this year’s United Nations World Youth Skills Day was ‘Skilling teachers, trainers and youth for a transformative future.’
The Formosan subterranean termite: a destructive force
Termites, numbering over 3,100 species worldwide, are infamous for their ability to wreak havoc on building structures and vegetation. The Coptotermes genus particularly stands out, containing the most termite pests, with 28 pest species. However, one species, in particular, has gained prominence as the most widespread and economically significant of them all. The Formosan subterranean…
Youth Skills Day: empowering and supporting young people in agriculture
To mark Youth Skills Day, Deogratius Magero, CABI’s Youth Engagement Manager for Africa, discusses why youth skills development programmes are vital for food security.
Permanent Crop Clinic Programme in Sri Lanka to be strengthened following stakeholder meeting
The CABI-led Permanent Crop Clinic Programme (PCCP) in Sri Lanka is to be strengthened further and provide greater help to the country’s smallholder farmers looking to sustainably protect their crops from devastating crop pests and diseases.
CABI’s expertise in digital data highlighted at Kenya meeting to help ensure greater sustainable food security
CABI’s expertise in digital data and development has been highlighted at a meeting in Kenya convened to identify ways in which Earth Observation (EO) data, products and services can help ensure greater sustainable food security.
Update: New Pest & Disease Records (05 July 2023)
We’ve selected a few of the latest new geographic, host and species records for plant pests and diseases from CAB Abstracts. Records this month include the first record of the genus Tagosodes in South Korea and the first report of a rot on Welsh onion caused by Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria in Japan.